1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a store system to be used, for example, in a convenience store or the like and, more particularly, to a store system improved so as to enable store employees to efficiently communicate with each other in a store or the like where a plurality of employees are working in staggered shifts.
2. Prior Art
In a large-scale retail system, for example, a convenience store system, tens to hundreds of stores (convenience stores), each equipped with basically the same store system, are linked to the headquarters via communication lines. Not only the computer system (store system) but also the work operation is basically the same in each of these stores.
Many such convenience stores operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and the store manager or like person cannot be expected to be in the store around the clock. Besides, as the store employees are working in staggered shifts, it is difficult to maintain communication between the employees (including the store manager) in the store.
Among the matters to be communicated within the store, those concerning the work operation must be conveyed smoothly from the store manager going off shift to an employee coming on shift and from the employee going off shift to another employee coming on shift or to the store manager coming on shift. If this communication is not done properly, trouble may occur in the progress of work.
Traditionally, such in-store communication has been carried out by means of a handwritten memo. For example, the store manager going home would leave a memo for the employee coming on shift, and the employee who came to the store after the manager left would see the memo and do the work in accordance with the manager's instructions. The same method is also used when the employee going home reports problems, etc. encountered during the work to the manager.
However, such a memo often tends to be misplaced or lost; furthermore, since the memo is not one presented at the appropriate stage of the work operation, the employee may forget to carry out the instructions written on the memo. For example, consider the case where the store manager has left a message saying “The cherry-blossom season has come. Be sure to order a little more 1.5-liter PET bottles and rice balls than usual” to the employee coming to the store after the manager leaves. In this case, there is no guarantee that the employee who arrives at the store after the manager leaves will see the memo upon arrival, because such a handwritten memo tends to be misplaced somewhere. Furthermore, if the employee did see the memo upon arrival at the store, there is no guarantee that the employee will recall the contents of the memo without fail when he or she orders the merchandise, that is, the PET bottles and rice balls.
In this way, as there is no guarantee that the instructions written on the memo will be communicated to the intended person and carried out without fail, the traditional in-store communication method replying on handwritten memos has not been reliable enough as a means for smoothly carrying out the work operation.
Furthermore, if such memos are accumulated for each store or for all the stores, and the contents of the memos are classified and analyzed at a suitable time, they can provide important know-how information for sales and store management, etc. However, in the prior art, means for accumulating such memos as information has not been available, and the memos have been used only as a temporary information-communication means among employees.